The Kennel

Our history

I grew up together with a large pack of dogs. Animals are a very important part of my life. I think to be in debt to animals for most of my mediation and relationship abilities, as well as for my open-minded mood. When I was 8 years old, I had to leave the country house where I grew up to move abroad in a big city. In order to feel sure and loved there as well, I invented an “invisible dog”, that was a Great Dane. I crossed the roads full of traffic and took the tram to go to school talking with my “invisible Great Dane” on the leash, forgetting so solitude and fear. I read books about Great Danes’ temperament and created my imaginary dog exactly so: instinctively good, loving, protective, wary of strangers, very intelligent and with a strong personality. Great Danes remained a dream for me until 1999, when a friend asked me to rescue a merle female from a shelter. My first Great Dane, Scilla, arrived and confirmed me all what I knew until then only in theory: the extraordinary learning capacity, sensitivity, high reaction thresholds, pleasure of staying close to humans and superlative beauty of this wonderful breed. In 2002 I bought my first blue Great Dane for show and breeding, Bettyblu. With her I lived the magic experience of breeding my first litter. The relationship with mother and puppies and the possibility of following their physical and behavioural growth day by day, learning something new every moment, conquered me. I decided so to seriously follow the route that would have led me to realize my child’s dream: becoming a Great Danes breeder. Eight years later, thanks to my dogs show results and to the litters I bred, my kennel achieved the FCI official recognition with the suffix “Luce Tranquilla”. In five years my Great Danes won more than 20 Italian and international beauty titles, permitting me to experience successes I will never forget, like the Best in Show as best breeding group won by Pericle, Bastet and Polissena della Luce Tranquilla at the European Dog Show in Brno, the second place in intermediate class of my champion Bonten at the World Club Show in Paris and, two years later, the victory of his daughter Bastet della Luce Tranquilla at the European Dog Show in Geneva. All these results were achieved with a little number of dogs. In my kennel live in fact only those I recognize to be able to offer all love, attentions, cares, socialization opportunities, family life and open spaces Great Danes need, without having to close anybody in a box. I wish to particularly thank Carla Carletti of Monti del Keraton Kennel that always helped me with her precious suggestions, great experience and fantastic blood lines, my veterinarian Massimiliano Triola, that cares my Danes with competence, love and passion and our superlative handler Carla Zanetti, author of so many of our successes in the rings.

The facilities

Kennel Luce Tranquilla is a farm with 5 hectares land located on the beautiful hills of Sabina, a region of secular olive trees and unspoiled nature in the very center of Italy. 10.000 square meters are reserved to Great Danes, with big 600 square meters large paddocks where to spend the daytime, equipped with heated dog houses, shadow and automatic water dispensers. Two working areas for show, sport and education activities, a little swimming pool and water vaporizers for the summer heat, a behavioral therapy studio where to welcome the new students complete our facilities. At night all our Great Danes sleep in our house or in the dependence that hosts the nursery for the litters in weaning period.

Our selection

A good genealogy is absolutely necessary with giant dogs like Great Danes. Our sires and dams are selected for morphology, temperament, intelligence, balance, health and longevity. They undergo official x-rays for hips and elbows dysplasia, eco-cardio check for hearth hereditary diseases and are submitted to the CAE1 Test to check their balance and social liability. Behind the birth of each puppy there is a great work. In choosing the mating I look for males able to point out the values of my mares and to relieve the little defects that all dogs have, in order to always improve my Danes, generation after generation. The relationship with the mare is very important for me, since she will need to be happy and on ease with me during delivery and nursing. I only use females I bred and brought to success in dog shows and this not only because they will have been appreciated by a group of international dog judges. A female that succeeded in becoming a champion is also a dog that traveled, met many people, afforded different situations, having so enough experience for teaching her babies about nowadays dog’s life. A dog mother needs in fact a wide culture about dogs and human worlds, in order to be a good pedagogist for her puppies and to show them how to behave with other dogs, animals, humans and the natural and urban environment

Our responsibilities

The breeder has an important educational duty towards the puppies, since they spend most of their sensible periods in his kennel. Their correct behavioral development, basic for their future wellbeing in the human society, depends in fact exactly from how they live this critical part of their life, because, even if temperament has a hereditary basis, a big part of the adult dog behavior is determined by how it has been bred in its first weeks of life and also by how its mother lived her pregnancy. Besides puppy’s education we also take care of the relationships with their future families. We provide our puppies owners with the guidelines for building a correct relationship with their future Dane and look in the litter for the most suitable temperament for each family needs and wishes. We have the responsibility of granting a happy life to all the Great Danes of our kennel, respecting their mental and physical wellbeing, as well as their social needs for all their life. Since Great Danes need to share their human family times and spaces, our house always looks like a kennel with humans.